Monday, 10-23-06: Fighting between two Pushtun warlords yesterday in western Afghanistan killed at least 12 people. Hundreds of people took part in the battle. The country's in a drought, and the government and the UN appealed for aid. 1.9 million people face food shortages. Israel admits using illegal white phosphorus shells during the recent war on Lebanon. They're banned by the Geneva Conventions. We had white phosphorus grenades in Vietnam. If a speck of white phosphorus gets on you, it burns down into your flesh, and only getting underwater will put it out. Israel also used illegal cluster bombs, 4 million of them, and a million of them are still lying around in Lebanon unexploded. In local news, a man in Troutdale was sitting in a patio chair outside his home. A man a block away said he parked his car a block away, set the parking brake and left the car in gear. It rolled downhill, turned into Arthur Dentler's driveway, pinned him against his house and killed him. Tuesday, 10-24-06: Friends of Heather McCartney say she has tapes to back up her accusations that Paul McCartney was an abusive husband. She says "he raised his hands to her." The UN anti-torture chief says several countries around the world are trying to rebut criticism of how they treat detainees by claiming they are following the US example. "They say if the United States does something, it must be OK." Wednesday, 10-25-06: A religious cult leader was killed in Lucasville, Ohio, yesterday. He was executed for killing a family of his followers. Jeffrey Lundgren said they weren't enthusiastic enough about his teachings. During his trial, he referred to the killings as "pruning the vineyard." He said he was a prophet of God and didn't deserve the death penalty. What he did was lead the family one by one to their deaths while the rest unknowingly cleaned up after dinner. Three of the family were children. He used the sound of a chain saw to cover up the shots. In Tiptonville, Tennessee, the fire chief and 3 volunteer firefighters were convicted of setting a string of fires in vacant buildings during the last two years. They're sitting in jail as I write this. Thursday, 10-26-06: Heather McCartney is suing two newspapers in Britain over "false, damaging and immensely upsetting" stories surrounding her divorce from Paul. This has become the most sensational marital breakup since Prince Charles and Princess Diana. The US government has proposed limiting contact between detainees and their lawyers at Guantanamo Bay. The Bush administration argues that news of current events will inflame the prisoners, so their lawyers won't be allowed to tell them what's going on in the world. A scientists found a bee in amber, a hundred million years old. It's the oldest bee ever found. It's about a fifth the size of a modern honeybee. In local news, a man named Cyntia Shutt was caught doing 132 miles an hour on a motorcycle on a local freeway. In the first six months of this year, 258 drivers have been mosted exceeding 100 MPH. The fine is $1103. The Supreme Court in New Jersey ruled that lawmakers must offer same-sex couples marriage or civil unions. In more local news, a man was taking money out of an ATM when two teenagers sprinted toward him from behind bushes. They yelled at him to hand over his money, one of them waving a folded pocket knife. Dan Ottenbacher stuck a hand in a pocket, mimicked having a gun and bellowed at them to scram. They ran, and were shortly caught by the police. One was 12, and the other 13. In more local news, a man ran into a church during the Wednesday night prayer meeting, dumped gas on half a dozen pews, and lit the fire. Churchgoers quickly doused the flames. The man had taken a cab to get to the particular church. Friday, 10-27-06: It turns out the recent spinach contamination scare resulted from wild pigs trampling the fence around a spinach field in California and breaking in and eating some spinach. The toxic strain of ecoli was found in the pigs. A NATO airstrike in Mirwisa Mina village in Afghanistan killed between 30 and 85 civilians, depending who you ask. In local news, A 58-year-old woman in Woodburn walked out to her mailbox yesterday. A buck deer walked up to her, knocked her down and attacked her with his antlers and feet. Two men in a passing pickup stopped and helped drive her deer off her. She was bruised. The deer walked away. In more local news, one of the officers who killed James Chasse had an excessive force complaint filed against him in 2005. The city paid $30,000 to settle. Christopher Humphreys and 3 other Portland officers pulled an 18-year-old man from his car and "beat him for an extended period with multiple punches, kicks, baton strikes, and use of pepper spray and Taser shots." A witness thought they were going to kill him. After the beating, the policemen realized this wasn't the guy they were after, but arrested him anyway for resisting arrest, and lied in their police reports to cover it all up. The man they beat was asleep in his car, and awoke to a window being broken out and pepper spray coming in. Saturday, 10-28-06: The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to hear the case of a sheriff's deputy who purposely bumped his car into the suspect's car on a high-speed chase, causing an accident that left the suspect a quadraplegic. A federal court found the officer used disproportionate force. An appeals court upheld that decision.